I found this out today. On the day of the Winter Solstice, if the stars could be seen during daytime, the Sun would be seen as a brilliant star shining in the centre of the Milky Way. WOW! So cool... 
Why this is so wow, is not just because of how beautiful this looks. It is also wow because at the precise moment when the Sun is "reborn", it is aligned to the centre of the Milky Way, which in Serbia tradition is the path souls follow to reach heaven, the land of the dead.
Some interesting things related to Milky Way. Like how it gave us the word for galaxy (from gala meaning milk in Greek) and why in Serbian tradition it is called the "straw" and is linked to the cult of the dead
Interestingly the same link between the Milky Way and the dead exists in Ancient Greek, Platonic philosophy. We find the description of this belief in his comentary on Cicero’s "Somnium Scipionis", Neoplatonist who lived around AD 400 in Rome and wrote texts supporting paganism
Platonic doctrine of the soul states that before birth the soul is a unified sphere because opposites do not yet exist. We find the same thing in Taoism were wuji (undivided whole) divides into taiji (opposites)...I talked about this here oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2018/02/fibona…
Platonists then proceed to state that this sphere (soul) proceeds to birth, to incarnation, when it loses its spherical shape, that is, its unity...
The soul travels between heaven and earth along on the Milky Way. The Milky Way intersects the astrological zodiac in Cancer and Capricorn, the two gates of the sun...
The first gate, Cancer, is the gate of man, while the second gate, Capricorn, is the gate of the gods. Through the first gate souls descend to earth, through the second they return...
But I would argue that Platonists had the gates mixed up. These two gates of the sun are Summer solstice and Winter solstice...I think that the Winter solstice is the gate of rebirth, as this is when the Sun God (Christ) gets reborn (comes back from the land of the dead)...
Winter is also the time when the dead come back to our world. In Serbian tradition, pretty much all the winter rituals are the rituals related to the cult of the dead...They are being wined and dined and entertained...
Well actually, now that I think about it more, I think Platonists were right. I am thinking out loud here 🙂 Sorry about the confusion...Winter solstice gate is the gate of gods. Sun god gets reborn then. But mid winter is in the world of men the time of death...
In Slavic mythology, migratory birds spent winter in the land of the dead, the "other world". They spent summer in our world, the land of the living. And on their way from the land of the dead they brought with them the souls that would be reborn...
That would make the Winter Solstice (Capricorn) sun gate the gate of gods and Summer Solstice (Cancer) sun gate the gate of men. Those Platonists were right 🙂 Serbian folklore confirms it 🙂Why is there so much Ancient Greek mythology in Serbian folklore???
Serbs have another name for Milky Way: "Jovanova struga". Jovan here could be Saint John. But the word "saint" is never used by peasants in Jovanova struga. It is always just Jovan, which could meant that Jovan here is Jov, old Sky God, or just Sky...
Word "struga" is an old Slavic word which means stream, current, canal, river bed...So "Jovanova struga" is "The stream of Jov". Or if we replace Jov (Sky God) with Jov (Sky, Heaven), then "Jovanova struga" is "the river in the sky", "heavenly river"... matica.hr/vijenac/424/st…
Is this the river Styx across which souls have to cross into the otherworld? Interestingly Serbs believed that "Nicolas ferries the souls from this world to the other world". St Nicolas, who comes at the time (Winter Solstice) when the Sun Gate that leads to the otherworld opens.
That here we are dealing with Jov, old sky god, Sky, can be seen by the fact that in Serbia we have two "Sveti Jovan" (St John) days: The summer Sveti Jovan (7th of July, Cancer) and winter Sveti Jovan (7th of January, Capricorn). Jovanova struga goes between these two Jovans...
Ethnographic records confirm that Serbs definitely placed this "Jovan's river to which all souls rush too after death", in the sky. "Everything (every man after death) has to come on Jovanova struga (Jov's river) in the sky..."
